On Thursday we went to the Horniman Museum. I’ve never been before as it’s not exactly on our doorstep and it’s pretty small compared to most London museums. But I had heard good things about it, particularly the current exhibition on there at the moment.

However.

The journey began with M crying because she was so cold (she seems to be feeling the cold quite a lot at the moment) and then we had horrendous traffic which meant that it took us an hour to get there. Once we got inside, D got very cross whenever M and I stopped to look at something – she wanted to look at space things but there weren’t any. M had a moderate interest in a stuffed wolf’s head and a skeleton of a baby but other than that it was pretty dull – we don’t really do ‘things in glass cases’ type museums. D was too cross for me to contemplate paying for the exhibition so we went outside to play, climb trees and admire the views across to the City of London, which cheered them both up enormously. On the way home, M said her favourite part of the museum was finding a secret den behind a bush – says it all really!! 😀

Yesterday we went out again, to our social meet up, Curious Minds. The girls LOVED the circus toys and were happily occupied for a long time.

Towards the end, D was in tears because she couldn’t spin a hoop around her arm like M :(. Recently, she’s been struggling with things that M can do and she can’t. The other day I found her lying on the bed and sobbing because she couldn’t balance on top of the space hopper while kneeling (a bizarre and seemingly unimportant goal in life but I recognise it’s part of a bigger picture for her). We chatted about M being two years older and therefore more able to do some things and we talked about things that she can do that M can’t (like doing a yoga crab pose) which cheered her up a bit.

I then had an idea of writing a letter to her 8 year old self, describing all the things she CAN do now she’s 6, and wondering what else she can do now she’s 8. It was quite a long list in the end and D came up with a few ideas which really buoyed her up. We’ve sealed the envelope and put it away – I just hope we remember where we put it in two years time!